Freedom & Prostitution

FREEDOM & PROSTITUTION moves between histories of gendered violence, and the struggles against it, to argue for a notion of freedom as liberation and autonomy: the dream of a world without work, without money, without gender, while imagining forms of survival now for those who often have little to no choices, refuse to submit to the demands of tedious underpaid or unwaged labor, an abusive partner, or seek a life beyond work. Sex work is not a “better” type of labor, but a proposal for its abolition. Rather than marginalize the lives and deaths of sex workers as a site of titillation or disgust, Freedom & Prostitution looks at the freedom that sex work can allow, while addressing the dangers sex workers face that are not necessarily inherent to sex work, but to the violence of capital and the deeply ingrained misogyny and racism in the world today.

Whether it is militaristic, imperialistic, or carceral in nature, the violence women face in sex work or their intimate relationships, are intrinsically linked by the force of capitalism and its capacity to shape and impoverish everyday life. Looking specifically at the case of Gary Ridgway, or the “Green River Killer” who murdered over 49 prostitutes during the 80s in the Pacific Northwest, and the response by sex workers, which influences and inspires the various moments of resistance embedded within the text.